Steelers Hire Brian Flores as the New Linebackers Coach/Senior Defensive Assistant

[warfelg]

I’m not sure what more there is to say man. I’ve given my opinion on it. I mean I pretty much laid out what I see is happening under you skipped it to make the same point for a third time. 

[Dcash4]

War, the premise of what you laid out I generally agree with....hire coaches that fit your head's vision and style. But I can go to a junk yard and find the pieces to build a race car. Doesn't mean the parts are good enough to make the car work. Yes, these coaches FIT. But you are trusting in Matt Canada and hiring of the scrap heap. Tomlin makes hires happen on defense. He is way, way way to trusting on offense -- especially of people with little to no experience. 

[43M]

Fitchner never shouldve been promoted....Canaduh never shouldve been promoted....and Canaduh shouldnt have been retained.

That being said, Canada walked into a pretty bad situation.    I do not believe he is a good offensive coach....at least not PRO, but I dont know if many coaches, even one of the top OCs in the league, couldve came in and salvaged the offense to any notable degree.  The OL was embarrassing and Ben was an empty husk of what he once was.   

The point about making Ben happy had some merit to it about 5 or 6 years ago, but if all the decisions the last couple years were made "to keep Ben happy", then either Tomlin or Rooney are laughably clueless.   Lets face it....probably both.         Ben was a bottom 5 starting QB since late 2020.    The only reason his stats didnt truly reflect how awful he was was because of how conservative the offense was and alot of stat padding.    

We all know Ben was a prima donna, cry baby ***** his entire career, and I understand why for many years the Steelers what they could to keep him happy.     But honestly, I feel like that hurt the team a good bit over the last 5 years as his inevitable decline set in.    After his elbow injury, the Steelers front office shouldve completely shifted gears for the entire franchise.      Anyone who thought Ben was going to be the driving force for this team or even just the offense was delusional.   His deep ball and mobility were already clearly declining in 2017 and 2018, and the elbow injury shouldve shifted this away from being "Ben's team".    

What I am getting at here is that while I agree with @Dcash4 that the front office shouldve hired a more experienced offensive coordinator after Haley left and especially after dumping Fitchner, I also understand where @warfelgis coming from, because they pretty much gave Ben whatever he wanted up to the very end, and I feel like that has put us in a very bad situation.     However, I will hold out the slightest glimmer of hope for Canada since he was put into a horrid situation.     I still think he is really bad just look at his play designs and situational playcalling.....but we will see if anything gets better this year with players that "better fit" his offense (which was a big reason promoting him with Ben still here made no sense since they HAD to have known Ben wasnt a good fit for what Canaduh does.

[Dcash4]

1 hour ago, 43M said:

that the front office shouldve hired a more experienced offensive coordinator

Matt Canada's lack of experience really isn’t my problem. I’m okay with taking that swing. But it’s the lack of surrounding him with experience and/or quality that drives me nuts when we see it happen on Tomlins side of the ball. So saying “yeah but they fit” doesn’t really move the ball on the overall offense if Canada is still the head of it. 

You can do anything with your hire. There are no rules and no limits. We do the bare minimum. Go throw money at Bill Bendebaugh at Oklahoma who just saw his HC go to USC and has a solid track record a mile long and is the Co-OC for multiple years. Go to Notre Dame, Georgia, Wisconsin, or Iowa that constantly produce solid pros and poach their guy. Tell Doug Marron he doesn’t have to stay at the Best Western on recruiting trips now. You could try for an up and comer if experience doesn’t matter and try to lure Brian Hartline into the pros, as he has done some really good work at OSU with the receivers and was just elevated to passing game OC. A guy like Juan Castillo was available. I’ll mention Jim Caldwell again as an advisor. It can be a made up position that’s objective is literally just to help Canada be a better pro. 

I don’t mind our hires. But there’s no excitement about our collective offensive group for me. A better, more experienced OC? Possibly. But I don’t buy into allowing Canada, who very well might not be here next year, choose his staff (who we won’t fire for 2 years even after MC is gone). 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Dcash4

[CKSteeler]

On 2/21/2022 at 6:51 PM, 43M said:

and the elbow injury shouldve shifted this away from being "Ben's team". 

The team drafted a blocking TE and a RB in the first two rounds of the draft, and brought Canada in and had him revamp the running game. What's laughable to me is that people don't realize that the team tried to move the offense away from the passing game, but news flash - the running game still sucked because the OL sucked and as much as some of you want to malign Ben, the most effective way for the 2021 Steelers to move the ball was still through the air. 

It's funny to hear about stat padding when nearly every win the team had came in the 4th quarter.

On 2/21/2022 at 7:26 PM, Dcash4 said:

Matt Canada's lack of experience really isn’t my problem. I’m okay with taking that swing. But it’s the lack of surrounding him with experience and/or quality that drives me nuts when we see it happen on Tomlins side of the ball. So saying “yeah but they fit” doesn’t really move the ball on the overall offense if Canada is still the head of it. 

No one with experience and options wants to come to work for Canada on offense after what this team put on film last year. The tools aren't there at the skill positions or on the OL. The QB isn't there. The scheme was awful last year. Coming into coach the Steelers offense is one of the least attractive jobs in the league right now. 

When Munchack came on board, the team invested heavily into the OL and had a franchise QB. An experienced offensive coordinator, regardless of what anyone thinks about Haley. 

Fitchner, for all the talk about being Ben's buddy, was just as much Tomlin's buddy. 

I don't think Tomlin is neglecting to bring in experienced coaches. I think the experienced coaches - as reported by those lackies in the Pittsbburgh media - don't want to come here at the moment.